Boo All You Want, Fans: Broncos Stink As Cutler Thrives

DENVER -- Because it was their duty as guardians of the Rocky Mountain empire, they convened in their football temple, gathered their hostilities and booed. And drank. And booed and drank some more. The fans greeted Jay Cutler with a standing boovation, booed him when he jogged onto the field, booed him when his image was shown on the big screen, booed him when he tied his shoes, booed him when he scratched his nose.

How loud was it? At one point, Cutler cupped his hands over his ears. How raucous was it? The stadium was shaking when he ran out for his first series as an enemy player. How zany was it? Fans wore diapers in the parking lot and "Crybaby Cutler" T-shirts while finding unique ways of defacing his jersey, such as burying it in tailgating food and even manure. How gratifying was the reception for the coach who traded Cutler, in what might be recalled as one of the dumbest trades in NFL history? Josh McDaniels was thrilled.

"It was a great atmosphere. This was more than a '6' on a scale of '10' in terms of the crowd," he said in a direct fireback at Cutler, who rated his new football town of Chicago as a '9' and his old town of Denver as a '6' in recent comments. "That was a great response. The fans did a great job in trying to help us and create noise. I could tell [the Bears] were having trouble hearing at times."

Cutler's former Broncos teammates, too, were rough on him, blitzing and crushing him at will. Elvis Dumervil threw him down in what nearly was a safety, then performed a dance for the delighted fans in the north end zone. Later, Dumervil blew past Orlando Pace and knocked Cutler to the turf after he delivered the ball, drawing a personal foul and the wrath of Bears center and Cutler protector Olin Kreutz. A scuffle ensued, followed by another minutes later, when Kreutz locked the linebacker in an embrace and prompted Elvis to belt out, "Just a hunk, a hunk of burning love. Ahhhhh!" When Darrell Reid dumped Cutler with considerable glee, Wesley Woodyard got in Cutler's face and mouthed off, prompting the quarterback to shove him back. This continued for most of the first half Sunday night, making this the first preseason game ever to require an Octagon. Turns out the hype was not overstated.

Truly, as much a town can hate a former quarterback, Denver cannot stand Cutler. The players, while understanding business is business and not sharing the local disdain, tried to give the fans a reason to get excited.

"Cutler? Oh, yeah, we had a lot of guys who wanted to get after him," Woodyard said. "There was definitely trash talk."

"We played against him every day in practice but never had a chance to hit him. We would always joke about him taking some hits," defensive end Kenny Peterson said.

Said Dumervil: "I don't like quarterbacks, period. Me and Jay are cool off the field, but once we're on the field, he's fair game."


But eventually, as night fell over a gloomy football town, the fans stopped booing. Reality was settling in that, no matter how much they want to blame Cutler for demanding the trade that led him to Chicago, they're stuck with an inferior team and a dubious future. For two decades, the Broncos were one of the NFL's premier franchises, winning two Super Bowls, spending money generously and wisely and contending regularly in the AFC. In a matter of months, though, they've become a laughingstock led by a rookie head coach, 33-year-old McDaniels, who looks like a waterboy and might be the weakest twig on the Bill Belichick tree. First he tried to acquire his New England project, still-untested Matt Cassel, and only succeeded in angering Cutler, who merely is a potential Hall of Fame QB. Now he's stuck in a raging feud with suspended receiver Brandon Marshall, who made a mockery of McDaniels' authority at practice last week by walking during warmups while the rest of the team ran, swatting down a pass thrown to him and punting a ball that he should have handed to a ballboy. All the while, we wonder what has happened to the steely management style of owner Pat Bowlen, who fired the most accomplished coach in Broncos history, Mike Shanahan, and replaced him with a lad.

When the fans boo Cutler, aren't they really venting bitterness over the demise of their beloved franchise? And they only bled a little more when Cutler, showing no jitters in his return to Invesco Field and bouncing right up after every hit, went 15-of-21 for 144 yards and a touchdown pass in an efficient half of play. When he hit running back Matt Forte for a 6-yard score with 13 seconds left before intermission, finishing off a 98-yard drive, he punched the air and raced to the sideline, where he and his teammates celebrated with a joy not normally seen in August.

The conclusion was obvious. Cutler has moved on to a town that will adore him and a team that should make the playoffs, if not contend for a Super Bowl in a hazy NFC. The Broncos? They're a mess -- and might be for a long time. Getting to Cutler with blitz packages might be the highlight of the a long season ahead. In the end, they can boo all they want, but they really should be booing McDaniels and Bowlen for running a franchise quarterback out of town at the pre-prime age of 26. And receiving in return a mediocre Kyle Orton, two No. 1 draft picks and a third-round pick? How stupid was that?

"It's exactly what we prepared for, what I thought it would be. We knew coming in that it would be a hostile environment. Denver has good fans, and we knew it would be loud," said Cutler, wearing an orange Bears cap after the 27-17 victory. "But that was good for us, good preparation for the first week at Green Bay. The guys knew what kind of pressure I was under and really picked it up for me. This wasn't your everyday situation."

How fascinating to see him take the high road, as he did last week when he voiced nice comments about McDaniels. This was a dramatic departure from the Cutler who was known as a jerk in his first three Denver seasons, the Cutler who picked verbal fights with San Diego quarterback Philip Rivers, the Cutler who never minced words, the Cutler described by Chargers linebacker Matt Wilhelm as "a punk" and "one of the biggest crybabies in the league." Is he possibly growing up? "I think both sides would change certain things, go about it a different way," Cutler said of the pre-trade acrimony in Denver. "But both sides are happy now and we're moving on I'm not getting into specifics, and I'm sure they're not either. It happened, it's over with and we're both moving a different direction." And McDaniels, the coach who dissed him and may live to regret it his entire career? "He's going to be a good coach," Cutler said. "I think their offense is going to be fine. [McDaniels] is an offensive mind. Just the brief amount of time I was able to spend with him, he's impressive. He knows a lot about offenses, he knows a lot about getting guys open and scoring points, as everyone's seen when he was in New England, so I think they're going to be fine."

And was he a little freaked by Dumervil? "Elvis always has a lot to say. He's a high-motor guy, and I love him to death," Cutler said. "I wish him the best of luck. Those guys were really fired up."


What impresses me most about Cutler is how he responds to negativity. He does speak with his arm, his mind, his moxie, his toughness. The Broncos and their fans can paint him as a baby, but it's clearly understandable why he felt disrespected when a first-year coach comes in and wants to bring in a far less accomplished guy. Wasn't McDaniels watching Cutler put up monster numbers? Wasn't it unfair to blame Cutler for playoff-less seasons when the Broncos had porous defenses?

They're only going backwards without him. Orton has enough trouble throwing the ball well without an injured middle finger, which he gashed in the second quarter. He appeared to dislocate it and was seen trying to pop it back in place, though McDaniels -- from the Belichick school of injury fakery -- says it's fine. With Chris Simms injured, the team's only healthy quarterback is rookie Tom Brandstater, whom McDaniels calls a four-year project. Offensively, the Broncos were a penalty-ridden mess. No wonder so many fans wear jerseys that hail the past -- ELWAY, SMITH, DAVIS, MECKLENBURG -- and ignore the present.

"You don't sustain drives when you're starting first-and-20, second-and-15," said McDaniels, who wears a sideline hoodie like his mentor, Belichick. "You you can't play in the NFL when you need 15 or 20 yards every time you need a first down. We've got to fix what's wrong. We're not gonna win playing like that."

"They played better than us. They played smarter than us," Orton said of his former team. "There's a lot of things we have to address, and we don't have a lot of time. It's time to stop saying we have time. Time's running out before the regular season."

And there's a fair chance they won't be getting help from Marshall, who wants a new contract and, like Cutler, has demanded a trade. Problem is, why would the Broncos or any other team want to invest big money in a petulant receiver? They are stuck with him and, according to team leader Champ Bailey, Marshall would have much to prove in the locker room before his teammates would welcome him back. "Look, we'll play with who we can play with," McDaniels said. "Life goes on sometimes in this league and you play with who you have and do the best you can."

He wouldn't be in such a dire position if he'd just tried to respect Jay Cutler. You sense Cutler will have a long career in the NFL; you don't sense the same about McDaniels, at least as a head coach. "It's a business. You never know exactly what's going to happen," said the triumphant QB. "There's coaching changes, there's player changes every day. You just have to stay in the game and wherever you land, you land.

"I love where I'm at in Chicago. I think we're heading in the right direction."

As opposed to his old team. Once, the Broncos were known as Orange Crush. Now, they're Orange Mush.